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A  Necrological  Notice  of  the  Hon,  Richard 
Stockton  Field 


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NECEOLOaiCAL  NOTICE 


Hon.  RICHARD  S.  FIELD,  LL.D. 


NECROLOGICAL  NOTICE 


Hon.  RICHARD  STOCKTON  FIELD,,  LL.  D., 

OF  PRINCETON,  NEW  JERSEY. 

READ  BEFORE  THE 

NUMISMATIC  AND  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY 
OF  PHILADELPHIA, 


Regular  Monthly  Meeting,  Thursday  Evening,  October  6,  1870. 


BY 


CHARLES  HENRY  HART,  LL.  B., 

HISTOKIOURAPHER  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 


PHILADELPHIA 

1870. 


C0LL1H8,  PRINTER. 


NECROLOGICAL  NOTICE. 


At  the  meeting  next  following  the  demise  of  our  late 
Honorary  Vice-President  for  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  Eicit- 
ard  Stockton  Field,  LL.  D.,  I  presented  for  your  consider- 
ation some  resolutions  of  respect  to  his  memory,  and  I  will 
now  ask  your  attention  while  I  sketch  briefly  his  life. 

Eichard  Stockton  Field  was  born  at  Whitehill,  in  the 
county  of  Burlington,  New  Jersey,  on  the  last  day  of  Decem- 
ber, 1803.  The  history  of  the  family  descent  is  somewhat 
obscure,  but  it  is  certain  that  he  was  descended  from  the  same 
family  as  John  Field,  the  distinguished  English  astronomer 
of  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  who  was  the  first  to 
use  the  Copernican  system  as  a  basis  for  calculations  for  prac- 
tical purposes,  in  his  "Bphemeris  anni  1557  currentis,  juxta 
Copernici  et  Eeinhaldi  Canones  fideliter  per  Joannem  Field." 
This  work,  which  was  of  considerable  magnitude,  was  under- 
taken at  the  suggestion  of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Dee,  and  was 
probably  the  very  first  publication  in  which  any  notice  was 
taken  of  the  discoveries  of  Copernicus.  This  John  Field  was 
born  about  the  year  1520,  and  was  a  son  of  Eichard  Fielde 
of  Ardsley,  who  was  likely  a  grandson  of  William  Fielde  or 
Feld  of  Bradford,  who  died  in  1480.  In  1555,  the  year 
before  he  published  his  first  Ephemeris,  he  was  admitted  fel- 
low of  Lincoln's  College,  Oxford.  About  1560  he  married 
Jane  Amyas,  a  daughter  of  John  Amyas,  of  Kent,  and  removed 
from  London,  where  he  had  been  living,  to  Ardsley,  where 
he  died  in  1587.  He  published  an  Ephemeris  for  1558,  and 
another  for  1559,  in  each  of  which  he  put  forth  more  strongly 


than  in  the  last,  his  support  of  the  system  which  he  had  the 
honor  of  introducing  into  England.     "It  was  in  recognition 
of  the  great  service  which  he  had  thus  rendered  to  the  cause 
of  science,  that  he  received  a  patent  in  1558,  authorizing  him 
to  wear  as  a  crest  over  his  family  arms,  a  red  right  arm  issuing 
from  the  clouds  and  supporting  a  golden  sphere,  thereby  inti- 
mating the  splendor  of  the  Copernican  discovery.     There  is 
a  seal  in  the  possession  of  the  family  at  Princeton  which  was 
no  doubt  handed  down  from  one  generation  to  another — on 
one  side  is  the  family  coat  of  arms,  on  another  is  the  crest 
before  referred  to — an  arm  supporting  a  globe — and  on  the 
third  side  'R.  F.,'  the  initials  of  the  name  of  Robert  Field," 
the  emigrant  ancestor  of  the  family  in  this  country.     John 
Field  had  nine  children,  from  the  second  of  whom,  Mathew, 
born  at  Ardley  in  1563,  it  has  been  attempted  to  trace  the 
American  family  of  the  name.     This,  however,  is  considered 
to  be  erroneous,  while  it  is  admitted  that  the  American  family 
are  descended  from  the  William  of  Bradford,  the  supposed 
great-grandfather  of  the  astronomer,  which  if  correct  would 
make  Richard  Fielde  the  father  of  John,  and  John  Fielde  the 
known  ancestor  of  the  emigrant,  first  cousins.     The  existence 
of  the  triangular  seal  with  the  initials  of  the  emigrant  ances- 
tor of  the  family  in  this  country  on  one  side,  and  the  crest 
granted  to  the  astronomer  on  a  second,  with  the  arms  of  the 
family  on  the  third,  does  not  prove  by  any  means  conclusively 
that  the  former  was  a  direct  descendant  of  the  latter;  as  rib- 
bons and  crests  were  often  adopted  by  a  family  who  had  no 
hereditary  right  to  them,  and  worn   over   their  legitimate 
"coats  armour,"  which  might  have  been  sans  crest.     It  does, 
however,  tend  to  show  very  strongly  that  they  were  descended 
from  the  same  family,  as  has  already  been  asserted;  but  when 
the  fact  of  the  direct  descent  hangs  merely  upon  tradition, 
while  that  of  collateral  descent  is  based  upon  the  evidence  of 
ancient  records,  Ave  are  surely  bound  to  regard  the  latter  and 
discard  the  former,  as  I  have  done  in  the  present  case,  therein 


following  Osgood  Field,  Esq.,  of  London,  in  his  researches. 
The  last-named  John  Fielde  had  a  son  William,  who  died  in 
1599,  whose  son,  also  William,  died  in  1619,  and  had  Eobert, 
born  about  1605,  who  married  May  18,  1630,  Elizabeth  Tay- 
lor, with  whom  he  came  to  New  England,  according  to  one 
account,  in  1635,  while  by  another  it  was  not  until  nine  years 
later.  In  1645  he  removed  with  his  family  to  Newtown, 
Long  Island,  and  with  others  received  from  Governor  Keift  a 
patent  for  a  tract  of  land  known  as  the  Flushing  Patent, 
which  was  dated  October  10,  1615.  He  had  five  children; 
the  second,  a  son  named  Anthony,  died  in  1691,  and  had  two 
children,  the  eldest  of  whom  was  John,  who  removed  to 
Boundbrook,  in  New  Jersey,  about  1685,  and  was  the  founder 
of  the  family  in  that  State.  His  direct  descendants,  as  far  as 
they  can  be  traced,  are  his  son,  Robert  Field,  born  January 
6th,  1694,  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Samuel  and  Susanna 
Taylor,  by  whom  he  had  Robert,  born  May  9th,  1723,  and 
married  Mary,  daughter  of  Oswald  and  Lydia  Peale.  He 
died  January  29,  1775,  and  had  posthumous  issue  Robert  C. 
Field,  born  April  5th,  1775.  This  was  the  father  of  our  late 
member.  In  1793,  he  was  graduated  by  Princeton  College, 
and  had  for  a  classmate  John  Henry  Hobart,  afterwards  the 
distinguished  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  for 
the  Diocese  of  New  York.  "He  married  Abby,  born  8th  of 
April,  1773,  daughter  of  Richard  Stockton  and  Annis  Bou- 
dinot,  in  1797."  He  died  in  1810,  leaving  five  children,  the 
fourth  of  whom  was  the  subject  of  this  notice.  The  next 
year  after  his  father's  death  the  family  removed  to  Princeton, 
where  was  the  residence  of  the  family  of  Mrs.  Field,  and  at 
this  place  he  received  his  education,  being  graduated  with 
high  honors  by  Princeton  College  in  1821.  On  his  leaving 
college  he  entered  upon  the  study  of  the  law  with  his  mater- 
nal uncle,  Richard  Stockton,  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
members  of  the  New  Jersey  bar,  and  was  admitted  to  practice 
in  February,  1825.     He  at  once  removed  to  Salem,  in  his 


native  State,  where  he  continued  in  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession  until  1S32,  when  he  returned  to  Princeton  and  made 
it  his  future  residence. 

In  LS;U,  while  still  at  Salem,  he  married  Miss  Mary  Kitchie, 
and  by  her  he  had  five  children,  she  dying  September  8th, 
L852,  after  a  union  of  twenty-one  years.  For  several  years 
Mr.  Field  was  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature,  and  in 
February,  1838,  was  appointed  Attorney- General  by  Governor 
Pennington,  and  in  this  high  and  responsible  position,  which 
he  resigned  in  1841,  he  acquitted  himself  with  ability  and 
honor.  He  was  a  leading  member  of  the  Convention  which 
met  at  Trenton  on  the  11th  of  May,  1844,  and  formed  the 
present  Constitution  of  the  State,  and  when  in  1851  it  was 
resolved  to  form  an  Association  of  the  surviving  members  of 
that  Convention,  he  was  appointed  to  deliver  the  address  at 
its  first  annual  meeting.  This  address,  which  was  delivered 
February  1st,  1853,  has  been  printed,  and  contains  an  elo- 
quent memorial  of  the  great  Convention  which  sixty-six  years 
before  met  in  this  city,  and  with  Washington  as  its  President 
framed  the  Constitution  of  these  United  States. 

In  the  New  Jersey  Historical  Society,  of  which  he  was  at 
the  time  of  his  death  its  third  President,  he  always  took  a 
lively  interest.  To  its  publications  he  contributed  his  most 
elaborate  work,  "The  Provincial  Courts  of  New  Jersey,  with 
Sketches  of  the  Bench  and  Bar."  It  forms  the  third  volume 
of  the  Collections  of  the  Society,  and  was  the  subject  of  two 
discourses  delivered  by  him  in  January  and  May,  1848.  At 
the  meeting  of  the  Society  in  September,  1851,  he  read  a 
valuable  paper  on  the  celebrated  "Trial  of  the  Eev.  William 
Tennent  for  Perjury  in  1742,"  which  was  printed  in  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  meeting;  and  to  The  Princeton  Review  for 
July,  1852,  he  contributed  the  leading  article,  on  "The  Pub- 
lications of  the  New  Jersey  Historical  Society,"  but  more 
particularly  noticing  its  latest  issue,  "The  Papers  of  Governor 
Lewis  Morris."     "Elected  one  of  the  Executive  Committee 


in  1851,  he  continued  to  hold  the  position  until  1865,  when, 
on  the  elevation  of  the  Hon.  James  Parker  to  the  presidency 
on  the  death  of  the  Hon.  Joseph  C.  Hornblower,  he  was 
chosen  First  Vice-President,  and  on  the  death  of  Mr.  Parker 
in  1868,  succeeded  him  in  the  Presidency."  At  the  annual 
meeting  in  January,  1865,  he  delivered  "An  Address  on  the 
Life  and  Character  of  Chief  Justice  Hornblower,"  and  at  the 
January  meeting,  1869,  a  similar  one  on  his  predecessor, 
President  Parker.  Copies  of  each  of  these  we  have,  as  also 
of  most  of  his  other  publications,  through  his  own  kindness. 

Mr.  Field  was  much  interested  in  the  great  question  of 
public  education,  and  when,  in  1855,  the  State  Normal  School 
was  organized,  he  was  chosen  President  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  and  about  this  time  he  delivered  an  address  on 
"The  Power  of  Habit."  (Allibone's  Dictionary  of  Authors.) 
He  continued  in  this  position  until  the  hour  of  his  death, 
and  every  Annual  Report  made  to  the  Legislature  by  this 
Board  was  written  by  him.  He  has  been  succeeded  in  the 
office  by  our  corresponding  member,  the  Hon.  William  A. 
Whitehead,  of  Newark.  For  some  years  he  was  a  Professor 
in  the  law  school  connected  with  Princeton  College,  which 
owed  its  very  existence  to  his  energy  and  talents,  and  in 
1859,  his  Alma  Mater  conferred  upon  him  her  degree  of  Doc- 
tor of  Laws. 

During  the  troublous  times  of  the  last  decade  of  years  he 
was  a  stanch  supporter  of  the  government,  and  although 
the  writer  cannot  agree  with  him  in  some  of  his  constitu- 
tional views  and  theories,  still  he  must  admire  the  force  and 
earnestness  with  which  they  were  expressed.  By  request  of 
his  fellow  townsmen  he  delivered  before  them  an  oration  on 
the  4th  of  July,  1861,  with  "The  Constitution  not  a  Compact 
between  Sovereign  States"  as  his  subject.  In  this  he  strongly 
advances  those  views  already  referred  to.  On  the  death  of 
Hon.  John  R.  Thomson,  a  Senator  in  Congress  from  New 
Jersey,  Mr.  Field  was  appointed,  Nov.  1802,  by  Governor 


8 

Olden  to  fill  the  unexpired  term.  But  his  service  in  the 
council  of  the  nation  was  but  brief;  he  being  appointed  by 
President  Lincoln,  Judge  of  the  United  States  District  Court 
for  the  District  of  New  Jersey,  on  the  21st  of  January,  1863. 
During  his  occupancy  of  a  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  he  had  the  opportunity,  however,  of  making  a  speech 
or  rather  an  argument  on  the  Discharge  of  State  Prisoners, 
January  7,  1863,  which  drew  upon  him  the  special  attention 
of  a  large  portion  of  the  Republican  party,  and  particularly 
of  its  press.  In  this  speech  he  supported  the  position  that 
the  right  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  was  vested  in 
the  President,  and  not  in  Congress.  His  views  on  this  subject 
were  in  accordance  with  those  expressed  by  the  venerable 
Horace  Binney  in  his  celebrated  pamphlets  on  the  subject  of 
the  "Suspension  of  the  Writ."  That  they  were  wrong  and 
the  act  of  the  executive  in  suspending  it  unconstitutional, 
was  virtually  acknowledged  by  the  act  of  March  3d,  1863, 
authorizing  the  suspension.  On  this  subject  the  argument  of 
Mr.  Justice  Read,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania, 
written  for  Mr.  Sumner,  is  exhaustive  and  unanswerable,  and 
it  may  be  well  considered  that  the  passage  of  the  act  just 
alluded  to  was  based  upon  this  argument.  When  Mr.  Field 
took  his  seat  upon  the  bench  of  the  United  States  District 
Court,  April  21st,  1863,  he  delivered  a  most  learned  and  ex- 
cellent charge  to  the  grand  jury,  which  has  been  printed  in 
a  pamphlet  of  twenty-four  pages.  In  his  judicial  life  he  has 
been  described  by  one  who  knew  him  well,  District  Attorney 
Keasbey,  as  a  "wise,  upright,  fearless,  and  merciful  judge." 
The  same  gentleman  then  continues : — "  Only  one  decision 
of  his  was  ever  reversed;  that  was  one  in  which  the  Supreme 
Court  were  at  first  almost  evenly  divided,  and  ordered  a  new 
argument.  Even  in  the  warmth  of  advocacy,  or  after  that 
warmth  had  cooled  a  little,  I  scarcely  ever  felt  that  he  was 
wrong.  He  had  a  keen  perception  of  the  real  point  and 
merits  of  a  case.     With  all  his  rich  culture  he  had  sagacity 


9 

and  sound  common  sense.  If  he  was  at  all  complained  of 
it  was  for  the  ardor  and  zeal  with  which  he  expressed  him- 
self on  the  bench.  This  was  in  his  nature.  He  always  did 
it  with  courtesy  and  kindness,  and  so  as  to  carry  conviction 
to  the  minds  he  addressed.  And  I  am  sure  there  is  not  one 
of  all  who  have  been  in  this  court,  who  will  ever  say  that  he 
was  warped  in  his  judgment  by  any  impure  or  unworthy  mo- 
tive. In  these  duties  he  had  a  wonderful  mastery  of  the 
English  tongue.  He  was  fully  acquainted  with  the  fountains 
of  English  eloquence,  and  his  mind  was  so  stored  with  the 
fruits  of  his  learning  that  he  had  a  rare  facility  of  expression. 
He  always  preferred  to  charge  juries  or  decide  cases  on  the 
spot.  He  could  always  do  it  better  than  if  he  stopped  to 
think  or  write.  I  think  that  if  we  could  reproduce  simply 
his  addresses  to  prisoners  about  to  be  sentenced,  they  would 
be  striking  models  of  manly  and  tender  exhortation." 

Mr.  Field  was  a  warm  admirer  of  the  late  President  Lin- 
coln; as  he  has  expressed  it  himself,  he  was  "one  whom  I 
loved  while  living,  and  whose  death  I  deeply  deplore."  At 
the  request  of  the  Legislature  of  New  Jersey,  Mr.  Field 
delivered  before  it,  February  12,  1866,  an  oration  on  the 
Life  and  Character  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  it  being  the  anni- 
versary of  the  President's  birthday.  At  the  Centennial  Cele- 
bration of  the  American  Whig  Society  of  the  College  of 
New  Jersey,  in  June,  1869,  Mr.  Field  delivered  his  last  public 
address,  and  it  is  one  marked  by  great  purity  of  style  and 
graceful  erudition.     It  is  on  his  favorite  theme  of  Education. 

In  April  last,  while  Mr.  Field  was  in  the  discharge  of  his 
duties  on  the  bench,  he  was  stricken  with  a  paralysis,  and 
after  uttering  some  incoherent  remarks,  fell  senseless  from 
his  seat.  He  was  carried  from  the  court-room  to  his  beauti- 
ful home,  in  which  he  so  much  prided  himself,  and  after 
lingering  some  weeks  totally  unconscious,  resigned  his  spirit 
to  his  Father  on  the  25th  day  of  May,  1870,  and  was  interred 


10 

in  the  rural  graveyard  at  Princeton,  "beside  the  wife  he  lost 
eighteen  years  before." 

One  of  the  most  striking  points  of  his  character,  and  one 
to  be  fondly  cherished,  for  it  reveals  better,  perhaps,  than 
any  other  could,  the  inmost  recesses  of  his  heart,  was  his 
warm  love  of  nature  and  of  nature's  works.  The  spacious 
grounds  about  his  residence  at  Princeton  were  remarkable 
for  the  rich  collection  of  trees  and  flowers  there  cultivated, 
comprising  specimens  from  the  remotest  parts  of  the  earth. 
These  he  tended  with  an  almost  parental  affection,  and  the 
name  of  each,  with  its  peculiarity  and  locality,  was  firmly 
fastened  on  his  memory.  He  attended  the  services  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and  in  its  councils  was  an  active 
Avorker,  being  repeatedly  a  delegate  both  to  the  Diocesan  and 
General  Conventions.  This  record  of  bis  life  I  trust  will 
afford  ample  reason  for  his  being  chosen  at  the  annual  meet- 
ing of  this  Society  in  January,  1866,  an  Honorary  Vice- 
President,  and  to  its  library  he  has  been  a  faithful  contributor. 

ne  left  three  children  to  survive  him,  to  one  of  whom, 
Miss  Annis  S.  Field,  I  am  indebted  for  much  of  the  material 
for  this  sketch. 


\ 


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